It was pretty good, but it didn't blow me away. Honestly it was good just to have Futurama back. I could have done with less time travel and more Zapp & Kif. I mean the time travel thing has been done in Futurama again and again. I didn't really like the conclusion, you know the predictable twist and the "cliffhanger" ending.

Well, it was definitely great to have new Futurama. Negative part first: I perceived the first half to be very fast-paced and choppy when I watched it the first time, though this impression was less strong on subsequent viewings. But there are still a lot of scenes which seem not to fit into the movie, like the Yetis. It was surely great to see a lot of the minor characters make an appearance, but it would have been better to concentrate on less characters and having them in for longer or more in-depth actings, I mean, Robot Santa did hardly do any violence and I could've needed more of Zap. As pointed out multiple times already, the introduction of mighty Nibbler was also a little rushed. The music was... well... we've had better, and Bender's photons joke was also a little blunt ;-)

Positive: Yay, new Futurama! The opening is great, so is the space battle, which is just soooo awesome (I like spaceships!). Al Gore's involvement turned out to be pretty good (as opposed to my expectations), and both the Professor and Zoidberg did - in my opinion - really, really well. I also found the "new" 2000s plot very touching and must say that seeing how Fry did in his time was very interesting - after all, I think I could say that this is the part of the movie I liked best. Some say it ruins Jurassic Bark and LotF... well... it does in terms of the canonical plot, but in my opinion the episodes themselves are still what they were before. Oh, yeah, and timetravel = doubleplusgood!I'm not sure about the ending. There would have been a dozen ways to get a more satisfying ending, but I still like this one. For once, it really allows for the upcoming movies to continue right in the middle and I have strong hopes that Nibbler's order to get into another universe is a hint for multi-paradox-parabox-like-parallel universe fun in the next movie. :-D

And in terms of shippiness... well, I'm not a big fan of the romantic component of Futurama in general, but the movie was still well-balanced.

Conclusion: Solid Futurama. Not the best there is, but good. Considering that they managed to allow for the movie to be split up and end up in self-contained episodes, a few of the negative points will turn out less significant in the series.

Any suggestions yet on what the time code actually is? Apart from having a nice symmetrical pattern (left hand side counts binary from 1 to 6, right-hand side is mirrored along the vertical axis), I'd guess it could represent actual machine code for a system working on an octal (36 bits in total, works nice with word length of multiples of 3) basis (PDP/8?). I'll have a look at that in a few days...

Any suggestions yet on what the time code actually is? Apart from having a nice symmetrical pattern (left hand side counts binary from 1 to 6, right-hand side is mirrored along the vertical axis), I'd guess it could represent actual machine code for a system working on an octal (36 bits in total, works nice with word length of multiples of 3) basis (PDP/8?). I'll have a look at that in a few days...

We found out in this thread that it looks like a one-eyed face as a picture and translates as '1'¡·STX' in binary. The 'STX' control code is rendered as a smiley face in DOS, so... 'One Eye Face' is what I've personally settled on.

God...awesome. Maybe it's just because I've been jonesing for new stuff, but it was hilarious and I was thoroughly entertained. Yeah, the Nibbler thing came on in a hurry, the musical numbers were unnecessary (albeit funny), and it ended in a crazy place, but it was well worth going to the 24-hour Wal-Mart for the DVD...plus we needed sidewalk salt and I grabbed a bottle of Dr. Thunder, for old time's sake.

I sort of knew Fry and Lars were somehow tied together. Their noses and Billy West's voicing gave that away early on. Still, I think it was a well-written twist.

The best thing the writers did, however was their dealing with paradoxes. To essentially say, "Paradoxes should be happening but they won't because we say so," is cheap and dirty, but it leaves a lot of room for storytelling.

The scammers were a little too disgusting, in my opinion. Maybe they'll come to grow on me in time.

WHY? Why do I have to be broke when something as important as this happens?! Curse those insurance companies and their thirst for money! Curse the holiday season and my many relatives! *thinks about last statement* Okay, perhaps those relatives are my ticket to bliss... BUT I CAN'T WAIT THAT LONG! Patience-- that's what I need. Anyone wanna loan me some?

Seriously, what is wrong with some of you people, to come into a review thread for a movie you don't want spoiled is one thing, but then to go on and read the posts specfically marked spoilers is just *sigh*

This was a case of trying to add every character in a space of ninety minutes. It was very rushed. The multiple time paradoxes, while intergral to the story, were confusing and the ad hoc nature of the time changes were disjointed.

I was very pleased to see the return of the Robot Devil, what with him being the best character and all, even if he only had a very small part and you only saw him from behind.

I tried the time code. It doesn't work. But maybe I was just reading it too slowly... But no, that's not right. I definitely read it much faster than Fry when he was reading it off his own arse that first time. Oh well. I'll try it again in a minute.

I really think the Nibblonians should have been given a bigger part, especially Nibbler. I mean, what, they got a grand total of a minute and a half in the whole 88 minutes of movie? And most of that is just Nibbler.

But let's not concentrate on the bad stuff. The idea of Bender going back in time and plundering all the valuable items in history was hilarious. The Fry is Lars thing was amazing. The whole binary code time travel thing? Genius!

Overall, a great film, and a treat for Fry/ Leela shippers everywhere.

I think a lot of people are used to their Futurama in 3 seven minute chunks with breaks in between. Got mine at Wal-Mart this morning and had my first view when I got it home. I liked it and I think I will like it more with each viewing. It's a lotta Futurama in one continuous stream.

Oh, I read where one fellow a page or so back said it wouldn't display in wide-screen. That's a DVD player setting not a DVD automatic thing. My DVD player displayed it widescreen (letterbox) when I set my player's TV Mode setting to "4:3" and View Mode to "Width Fit" after the DVD is inserted and has started playing. This is for my conventional TV. Setting the TV Mode to 16:9 resulted in squished screen. Maybe that's why he thought characters were off-model.

Go to Best Buy right NOW and buy it! Go! Best Buy specifically because a) it's $2 cheaper than at Circuit City and b) it has a Best Buy exclusive bonus disc that contains a terrific preview for the next movie, The Beast With a Billion Backs.

The first half is kinda slow-building, but once it hits the last 45 minutes or so, it is just wall-to-wall EPIC WIN.

Torrented and just watched BBS. I will be buying it this week. I enjoyed the movie, but I have some issues that prevent me really enjoying it... actually, in further thought, I am seriously, crushingly disappointed.

The movie is funny in parts, though flawed. The nude alien plot is reasonable but not as interesting as perhaps the writers thought it was. Hermes was great; La Barbara's flightiness became irritating and was inconsistent (as somebody pointed out above, she chose Hermes over Barbados Slim despite Slim's manly body). Bender was spot-on, cute and humorous. The crudity was a little overboard; the team clearly were too excited about the lack of network censors. The complete lack of reaction or follow-up to the revalation that Nibbler can speak is surprising and irritating. Still, Bender's Big Score is reasonably funny and it was good just to have Futurama back.

Unfortunately the movie completely destroys several of the best elements of Futurama and virtually ruins the Fry/Leela love story.

The ret-conning of Luck of the Fryrish and Jurassic Bark is unnecessary and what's worse, destroys both episodes. The year 3000 reactions to the fossilized Seymour would still happen, but the emotional impact of the original episode's ending is negated. Fryrish is completely negated. Why would Yancey even name his son after Phil, if Phil wasn't missing? Perhaps the best episode of Futurama, and one of the most genuinely emotional moments in the series or any TV series, has been negated by the retconning. Sure, the episode exists in its original form, but Futurama has been all about continuity. It's the key difference between it and Simpsons: Characters evolve and continuity matters (for the most part). The time-travel itself in BBS was done well and made sense, though it did require some close attention.

But I cannot handle the Fry & Leela storyline. The first error is the complete ignorance towards the events of "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings." I could accept that perhaps things did not work out, or there was some issue. But the viewer is not offered a single explanation as to why, after Fry won Leela's heart in that episode at last, they are completely status quo. It is simply unmentioned.

The status quo is frustrating. I've seen Fry pine over Leela while she completely ignores his devotion and crushes him with her insensitivity. I've watched that. It's time to move past. BBS does the job of making Fry more pathetic and Leela more insensitive. It does the job of making me want Fry to just get over her because he's holding a torch for a woman who does not, and will not reciprocate - but will gladly toy with his emotions without pause. Fry, you're a loser but you can do better.

Way back in Parasite's Lost, Fry had the opportunity to win Leela. But he needed to know, and rightly so, that Leela loved him and not merely the person he became thanks to the worms. It didn't work out then, but we all knew one day Leela would love Fry for Who He Is, and not Who She Wishes He Was.

In Devil's Hands, Leela is struck by the true Fry, not just his cold demonic hands. That is the poignancy of the finale. It does not matter that Fry is no longer a holophoner virtuoso. It's his heart that counts.

In Bender's Big Score, the only way Fry can win Leela's heart is by completely altering himself until he is, truly, a brand new person. A person who conforms to every idea he has or has been given about who Leela could love. The idea, clearly, is that "Leela has loved Fry all along." But in execution, Leela does not fall in love with Fry. She falls in love with Lars. Lars is not Philip J Fry. Lars is Lars Fillmore, a person designed solely to be Leela's perfect man. Leela will never love another man. How can she love Fry?

Fry and Lars are two completely different people.

Zero explanation of why Devil's Hands did not result in Fry & Leela at least *trying* to get together. Destroying two of the best Futurama episodes with unnecessary retconning. I could live with those elements, but I can not believe that the ultimate theme of Bender's Big Score is that Fry can only win Leela's heart by becoming somebody he is NOT. That is bullshit.

I will, of course, buy this movie. I will support more Futurama. And I'm sure I will watch the movie again. It has the result of making me no longer care if Fry and Leela get together. Fry, buddy. It's been seven years and she doesn't give a damn. Move on, man. This was a bad episode that was really long... hopefully the other three movies are better.

he was 16 years older (12 years + the time in between Cryonic Woman [3003] and BBS [3007]). Of course he wasn't the same person. Just ask some of our elder PEELers if they were the same exact person 16 years ago.

1. I didn't read through all the reviews, so am I the only one to notice that a sizable part of the soundtrack was lifted directly from the Futurama game soundtrack?2. How long should spoiler tags be mandated for this thread? A week at least, just out of courtesy, but it would be really silly to use them for any extended period of time.

This is logically impossible, but I saw the Fry that eventually that became Lars as being mature since we first saw him come in contact with the version of him that went back to the future, reminded him not to use the timecode and telling him he was a pig for travelling back in time for free pizza. See, I told you that doesn't make sense... Unless he wasn't actually Fry, but someone else! Hey, most of our crazy theories have been proven before...All you need is one tiny bit of evidence (e.x Leela being a mutant, and Seymour not dying at the end of Jurassic Bark).

he was 16 years older (12 years + the time in between Cryonic Woman [3003] and BBS [3007]). Of course he wasn't the same person. Just ask some of our elder PEELers if they were the same exact person 16 years ago.

1. I didn't read through all the reviews, so am I the only one to notice that a sizable part of the soundtrack was lifted directly from the Futurama game soundtrack?2. How long should spoiler tags be mandated for this thread? A week at least, just out of courtesy, but it would be really silly to use them for any extended period of time.

I agree that Fry will grow up in 16 years. What concerns me is that Fry did not become "Fry in 16 years." He became somebody he thought Leela would love. Not Fry grown up as he is, but Fry evolving into a person who he is not. Grown up Fry may very well be similar to Lars, but I feel strongly that Lars is Fry attempting to become what Leela wants. Trying to be somebody you're not to get somebody's love is just a bad idea, and it really sours the entire love plot which up til now has been so delicately handled.

Well, whoever Ryan Ro is, he stated the exact things that I stated earlier about not liking BBS.

He's right - all Fry did as Lars was become a different person to be what Leela wants. Leela wants people to accept her for her flaws (one eye, bad temper, prone to violent outbursts, being nosey and opinionated) but she has precious little tolerance to take others as they are.

Case-in point in TKOS - she tells Zoidberg what she likes and dislikes in Fry, but she never tells Fry. Communication is important in all relationships, be they romantic or friends. She just expects others to be the way she wants. In other words, she wants the world to revolve around her. She makes Amy look less shallow in comparison.

(And yes Nix, I am a different person than I was 15 years ago, but I wouldn't change everything about myself for the sole reason of winning some fickle woman's love.)

Speaking of fickle women - La Barbara. Jesus, her going back and forth between Hermes and Barbados Slim made him look more pussywhipped and pathetic than Fry.

This movie has made me a total non-shipper. Fry (or any other man, for that matter) can do better than Leela. As for Fry, he looks more pathetic in each outing. If giving up his claim to fame (the Devil's Hands) to save Leela from spending the rest of her life in Hell and she hasn't shown the smallest amount of interest or try to help him become what she will love, then he doesn't have a chance in hell of winning her heart. He should move on. So this movie has made both characters look less sympathetic than ever.

But worse for me is totally crapping all over the previous episodes and negating the raw emotional punches they had. All to be spectacular. All in the name of having a DVD.

And most of the fans will love this crapfest because they're like a person who hasn't eaten in a week - give a hungry man spoiled spam on a stale cracker and he'll think it's cavier on a trisket. And that's all this movie is - spam on a cracker.

No, I'll be eviserated by the shippers and most (if not all) of the regulars on this board for being very critical of this movie. But if they look in their hearts for just a moment and realize waht made Futurama specail, they'll realize all that was thrown away in this movie.

Ralph 'won't be invited to DXC's home' Snart

BTW, if anybody from the staff wants to do a 'That's Lobstertainment' and contact me to ask why I hated this movie, gimme me a call and be ready to get an earful.

I did not get the sense that Lars was nothing more than what Fry thought Leela wanted. Lars was Fry, only older, more experienced, more mature, and most importantly, more confident. That to me seemed to be the biggest difference between Fry and Lars. When Fry found out that he *was* Lars he then knew for a fact he could be with Leela and make her happy. He'd already seen her and Lars together so he knew it was a done deal. He no longer had any reason to be shy or awkward or doubt he could pull it off because he had already seen that he could. Lars is not some front that Fry was putting on for Leela's sake. Lars was simply an older more confident Fry. And that confidence came from already knowing that she would be receptive when he met her again.

2 - It doesn't ruin Luck of the Fryrish or Jurassic Bark for me. Those are beautiful episodes, and part of their beauty does come from their sorrow. But that doesn't mean that I'm adverse to additional revelation. Ralph thinks they've painted a mustache on the Mona Lisa, I think they made another copy to hang beside it in which her smile is a grin.

3 - Nibbler's talking isn't a big deal to anyone on the crew. Whoops. Maybe they weren't very shocked because his revealing himself was just a reminder of something they knew but didn't quite remember.

4 - I didn't mind the music. Coulda been worse, coulda been better.

5 - It DOES bug me that Leela and Fry's relationship basically pretended that The Devil's Hands never happened. But hey. I think the Lars storyline was more interesting than if it'd been an hour and a half of Leela and Fry being mushy.

6 - Re: Lars being Fry... Spotted it a few minutes before the plot revealed it.

And what's the matter with those of us who say that Lars is "Fry trying to be what he thinks Leela wants"? Lars spent a full dozen years living a life with family and friends and work that had nothing to do with becoming someone to please Leela. Which is a lot more than we can say of Fry as we typically see him, almost obsessed with doing things to make Leela love him. Also, Fry has a line that seriously foreshadows this plot twist - "I won't be immature forever".

I agree with Ralph that they made Leela inconsiderate of Fry's feelings. With their history, she should have at least been somewhat considerate.

7 - Thank your various deities that this movie wasn't all about Bender. If this was an hour and a half of "A Pharaoh to Remember" I'd have been bitterly disappointed. So seriously, why would they name it "Bender's Big Score"? Ah well.

8 - I liked the beginning and how they didn't pretend that no time had passed. And ground-up FOX exec powder was fun. I certainly remember reading some indignant rants about FOX on this board...

Also, Al Gore's parts were fun. I approve.

And there's way too much for me to comment on right now. Imma stop here, maybe I'll have more thoughts tomorrow when I've seen it again.

Ok, so I got the movie today, and watch Everybody Love Hypnotoad. Basically, skip over the blank screens for the most part, and watch the commercials. Only three times is it worth it to listen to the toad. First, near the beginning the crowd cheers, in the middle, Hypno gets shot but is ok, and the third time he hoes higher-pitched.

TO THE MOVIE. I sat there and watched, eyes glued to the TV, but I felt it could've been done...a tad less randomly. Of course, it was a lot to take in and if I could only have been there to tel lthem what to write...prehaps the long scenes would not have been too long, and more characters like Mom, who made no appearance and Zapp and Kif (who only appear a few times for short frames) should've had a say in things. I feel, in a way, the movie wasn't Futurama, yet at the same time, it was. With so many time travels, it's hard to tell someone the basic plotline. I tried explaining it, and it was right after I had finished watching it...two minutes later! Something about it seemed a little random at times, almost a Family Guy-ish feel, and it threw me off a bit. I figured Lars was Fry when I saw him, because the eyes and nose gave it all away. I'm not saying it was terrible, but it wasn't, after my first view of it, up there with the top episodes. It's closer to the Zoidberg episodes or one about other characters besides Fry and Leela. The visuals are absolutely gorgeous however, and I have to say, when I saw Fry naked, I was impressed by his looks. I also laughed my rear off at the weiner joke. But, basically, the rest of the movie wasn't so funny as to make my almost roll over on the floor. Too much seriousness, not enough comedy I say!

I could go on, but I'll just score it. 8/10. Even if it felt a little...off, it's easliy understood. All the people were away from it for a long time. Five years. That changes a lot of things. I think if they also add some nice music in the next movie (even though it's basically ready to be sold now anyways) it'll make for a good show.

Honestly, I think you people are crazy for believing FryLars only changed to please Leela. Like TMC said, he spent 10+ years believing he'd never see her again. He grew up. That's some honest-to-God grade-A character growth and to say that he only did it for someone who he spent a decade beliving he'd never see again is a gross misread on your part and a grave disservice to everyone involved.

Honestly, I think you people are crazy for believing FryLars only changed to please Leela... is a gross misread on your part and a grave disservice to everyone involved.

And a thorough mixup of cause and effect to boot.

I liked the movie, despite my general disdain for time-travel stories (they always seem like a convenient excuse). The shippy bits, well, yes, it's a bummer that Devil's Hands got stomped all over, but to me the end of the movie seemed a lot more hopeful. Except of course, if they do it all over again with the next movie. Leela mentioned before that the only thing she didn't like about Fry was his childishness, here's where Leela gets her wake up call that he's a lot more grown up than she'd like to admit.

I don't think Seymour's appearance retconned Jurassic Bark, although it does leave open the question why Seymour went out looking for Fry the next day.

With Luck of the Fryrish, though, there's no good reason why they wrecked the events that made that episode so memorable.

The music, well, I thought it was great! The song that plays while Leela and Lars are on their date... ah! As for the musical numbers, the second one was pretty good, the first... eh.

I really liked the space battle scene, the animation was fantastic! Hermes' role was pretty well done too.

Characters I wish I saw more of: well, unlike most people, I felt the writers shouldn't have tried to squeeze in so many characters. Except there should've been more of Beelzebot

Finally, after all the hype, the sphere-o-boom was quite an anticlimax...

THE GOOD: Everything hung together well. The animation and acting were up to their usual excellent standards. Pretty much all the main characters got to shine (in fact, Hermes probably got more to do in this movie than he did in the last couple of seasons. Lots of appearances by favorites, but done non-gratuitously (if this were a certain other show, we'd've gotten three minutes of Randy rambling on about soda and cookies, or Dean Epsilon ogling Dwight and Cubert. Thankfully, we had characters show up when they had a reason to. As for this episode ruining the ending of JB... well, we didn't see EVERY MOMENT of those twelve years, did we? I liked the other reveals, like why New York got blown up the first time (who wants to bet that sometime in the next three movies, we get to see the reason for Sweden's later attack?), and how Seymour got fossilized.

THE BAD: Okay... I WAS disappointed that the ending of TDHAIP got handwaved and Fry and Leela are back to Season 3. Also, I could have lived without the dull songs.

I'm gonna have to take the contrarian position (ie against everyone, including the commentary members) and say that the Nudarians were one of the funniest species they ever came up with. Really it's the scrunging that sells it for me . . . . .

Just watched it the second time with my wife. I didn't dislike it as much this time, but it also didn't become great.

My friend Devin also expresses that he feels Fry did do growing up on his own, without Leela, without trying to be just "her." And that is true. He got over her and did the narwhal thing, thinking he'd never see her again. It's still creepy that he deceived her AND well, himself and... even if he did do all this growing up, he still ended up being Lars Fillmore... it doesn't make me feel great about the whole thing.

Overall I enjoyed it more the second time, but it was a bit long and got a bit tiring. I hope in the next three movies they're able to make it easier to watch. I mean, I've done super Futurama marathons so it's not like watching 90 minutes at a time is the problem, it just felt too long. Although this time I saw where the episode breaks will be and they seemed pretty reasonable. Nowhere near the worst episode, but I don't see myself rewatching it as often as a lot of the other ones.

More than anything. Please. Don't reset to status quo in the next movie. Please deal with Fry & Leela. Sure, they're not technically "together" at the end of Devil's Hands but to just sweep it away like they did was just so painful. It was such a beautiful episode. After the events of BBS, going back to Fry pining/Leela not caring won't make any sense whatsoever. Please. Leela knows she can only love Fry now... can we now remember all the development that happened in season four?

Some positive thoughts though! Widescreen looked SO good. 5.1 sounded great. The Al Gore jokes were great. The time travel, while confusing, was very well organized and makes sense (even if one's head hurts.) The Globetrotters! The holiday guys! Mark Hamill! The space battle at the end. And, though La Barbara annoys me, I did really like Hermes in the movie. He's one of my favorite characters next to Zoidberg.

I also did like that they didn't try to randomly cram EVERY SINGLE character in. There were lots of visual cameos, but lots of characters didn't even get speaking lines. Zurg, Robot Devil, etc. I am expecting a lot more Zapp and Zoidberg in the next few though. Because, like, awesome.

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